Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Most Generous Philanthropist of 2013

Most of us know that Facebook was started inside a dorm room way back when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was just a college student. Now, not only is he one of the nation’s richest individuals, he ‘s also apparently one of the most generous.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has released a list of the biggest gift-givers of 2013. Spearheading this list is none other than Facebook’s first couple, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. They have made a contribution of nearly $1-billion in the form of Facebook stocks to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a foundation that offers aid and support towards research geared towards emerging challenges and the common good.

This isn’t the first time that Zuckerberg has donated to this cause. Last year, he has also made a contribution similar to the number of stocks he has donated now. The fact that the stocks were worth just $500 million then is another testament to the fast pace of Facebook’s growth and its economic prowess.

Zuckerberg’s donation is fulfillment of a pledge he has made with other fellow philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet three years ago. The “Giving Pledge” is a campaign promoted by wealthy individuals who vow to give at least half their assets to philanthropy over the course of their lives.

This donation is not the only charitable work done by Zuckerberg recently and in fact, not all his donations are monetary. He has launched through Facebook the “Open Compute Project” back in 2011. Hailing from the hacker mentality and roots of the Facebook workforce, this organization aims to design hardware and software from scratch that are more efficient but less expensive, prioritizing utility over vanity. The organization then shares this information publicly and even helps others in sharing data center products and research.

In closing, we really can conclude that the people who give more, get more in return. Though the meteoric rise of Facebook is often hailed as unprecedented, it is still nice to see that the Facebook magnate is still sticking to his roots and helping others in making this world a better place to be. Kudos to you, sir!